A team of researchers from Stanford University has discovered that the ability to recognise faces can spur tissue growth in our brains well into adulthood.

Researchers led by Kalanit Grill-Spector, examined the brains of children and adults using a new type of imaging technique, focusing on an area of the cerebral cortex that plays a key role in face recognition.

The scientists found that that in adults the region of the brain that helps recognise faces had increased, while the part of the brain that recognises places had remained the same.

Prof. Ryusuke Kakigi of the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Japan says, “In this research, we have found that not only brain areas that execute face recognition but also brain areas that had been considered non-essential to face recognition are important for “normal face” recognition.”